Accedance
by Aaron
Summary: The first season digidestined are vanishing; or being blown up; or going to frat parties.
1. Salt Lake City, Utah

**Disclaimer**  
  
I wrote this story four years ago, and only recently took another look at it.  It was kinda okay.  But there was some cool stuff, so I'm rewriting it and reposting it.  When I'm done, I'll post the original version, and we can laugh at how stupid it was.  But let me just say, that I haven't watched Digimon since the end of season one, and I've probably forgotten a lot of it.  But this was a really, really AU story when I first wrote it.  If you read far enough to see the space aliens and the parallel universes, you'll see what I mean.

Enjoy.

* * *

1

* * *

  
A year ago, when his family had moved Okuchi, Tai had started asking everyone to call him Taichi. Aside from his parents, and his sister Kari, there were only six people who still called him Tai, and they lived an hour away, even if you took the train.  He missed them, and his adventures in the other world; since returning, their lives had drifted apart.  He wouldn't say he missed the constant mortal danger, but there was a sense of immediacy, of alive-ness, that came with facing death.  It nagged at him, and Tai was no longer comfortable sitting alone.  He had thrown himself into his schoolwork, to distract himself from the feelings.  His parents were pleased with that, at least.  They had encouraged him to court a girl named Kusami, who came from a good family.  She was sweet, and Tai tried to like her, but she had adopted the same role model as Mimi, and her air-headedness annoyed him.  Once, it even got him into trouble:  
  
 Kusami whispered, "Taichi," she stabbed him in the back with a very sharp pencil, eliciting a yelp of surprise.  
  
"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Mister Kamiya?" asked Mr. Ishkado.  
  
"No, teacher-chan," Tai mumbled, tossing Kusami a quick look of annoyance.  Ishkado was a very old teacher, who had not changed his curriculum since long before Tai was born.  He did not hold with students interrupting class, or talking out of turn, or talking in turn, or generally showing any signs of being sentient life forms.  The old man turned back to his lecture, talking about the unification of China, and managing to make one of the most exciting periods of Asian history about as interesting as a very mediocre slug.  
  
"Taichi-kun!" Kusami whispered at him again.  
  
"What is it?" Tai whispered horsely back.  
  
"Can I just give you this note?" she asked lightly.  
  
"A note?" Tai replied, "That's it? The old man's farsighted, for crying out loud! You could have just given it to me."  
  
Tai turned back to face the front.  He could no longer hear Mr. Ishkado's lecture droning in the backround.  "Tell me something, Taichi." Mr. Ishkado's voice almost expressed a vague emotion: glee. "Can you see if I wrote 'detention' or 'expulsion' on this card? I'm holding it almost a foot away, and I just can't see that far."

On his way to detention, Tai grabbed the note Kusami had been trying to give him.  It said, "Come talk to me after class."

* * *

  
Matt made his way through the backyard, and ignored the painful stench of people smoking cigarettes.  He made his way through the basement of the house, and ignored the more pleasant smell of people smoking something else.  In the kitchen, there were a great deal of drinks, and a thicker crowd; he took two cups of coffee and pushed his way through.  In the front room, he ignored some nudity.  On the porch, he found Sora.  She had perched herself on the railing farthest from the door, and he slid in next to her.

"I guess the university students don't mind a couple of kids crashing their party after all." 

"Well," Sora replied thoughtfully, "I can't be held responsible if they're too drunk to kick out the obviously underage and uninvited guests."  
  
"So," Matt repeated, "Are you having fun?"  
  
"Yes," she admitted, "It's probably one of the best nights of my life."

"And a whole lot cheaper than tickets to the opening ceremonies," Matt smiled.  The 2002 Winter Olympic Games had officially begun not an hour before, and their parents were off enjoying themselves at the after party in the Japanese house, safely under the impression their children were mixing at similar event for the young ones at the Swiss house.  Matt sighed – after party, frat party, it was a small mistake.

"I'm surprised you haven't made a pass at anyone," Sora observed.  "Isn't that why you brought me?  So you could go out and try all sorts of new and exciting western things and people."

"It's not so easy, close up.  The movies always cut out the difficult bits, between when your eyes first meet and the making out."

"You should have brought something to play."  Sora was always trying to get Matt to do more with his musical abilities.

"You should have something to drink."  Matt grinned, "They're playing strip poker in the basement."

"Hardly original.  No wonder we invent all their cool gadgets."  Sora yawned.

  
"Weakling.  You've only been up a day."  
  
"Just because you like to stay up until people look like blue lizards doesn't mean everyone else does," Sora shot back.  
  
"That has nothing to do with how long I've been up, lizard queen."

Sora didn't get a chance to strike back – suddenly someone was shining a bright flashlight in their faces.  It swiped past them to sweep over everyone on the porch, and there were several other people standing at the door, knocking and waving flashlights.

"Guess what?  We're the cops."

Matt and Sora looked at each other for a moment.  Then the simultaneously swung their legs over the railing, dropping into the front yard.  Calmly, they walked at an even pace, passing several cruisers and a few officers.

* * *

  
Tai walked as quickly as possible out of the school, planning ways to avoid talking with his parents when he got home. He was one of the last people to leave the school for the day. Of course, he wouldn't be coming back for three days. A three day suspension. His parents were just about ready to kill him, and Mr. Ishkado was refusing to let Tai back into his class. He had an official reprimand placed on his official record.

Tai slid wordlessly into the passenger seat, and his mother did not have a chance to say anything before the school exploded.


	2. Okuchi, Japan

* * *

2

* * *

Matt and Sora made the cab ride to the hotel in comfortable silence.  The plush new Marriott, located right downtown - or as downtown as you could reasonably get and still be in Utah – was a hotel that had been specifically built for the Olympics.  In Matt's room, he made some of the atrocious complimentary coffee, and she stretched out the sofa, flipping through channels.  There was nothing but news reports on, and she flipped it off.

"Don't," Matt said, simply.

"What?" she turned to look at him.

"Didn't that say Okuchi?  Where Tai moved?  What channel was that on?"

"Pick one, it's on every channel."

"All the news channels?"

"No, all the channels.  Period."  Sora reached for the remote, realizing the implications.  She turned it on, leaning forward, but there was now a graphic of the Yellow Sea on the screen.

"…Chinese claim the satellite hit somewhere in the Yellow Sea, shown here.  The Japanese and American government have denied that any satellites have entered the atmosphere.  The European Space Agency, however, has released a series of orbital photographs said to show something crashing into the Yellow Sea, perhaps a meteor."

"Thank you, John.  We will soon have a live report from our correspondent in Okuchi, Japan, where, earlier today, a Chinese missile struck a high school, killing dozens.  The Japanese government has not formally responded yet, but the lack of retaliation so far…"

* * *

  
"Hikari!" shouted Tai, opening the door to their apartment, "Are you here?"  
  
"Tai!" Kari's eyes were wide with relief, "You're okay! I saw the news report about the school! They said someone had been killed, and two people were in the hospital, and—"  
  
"Shhh!" Tai quieted his little sister, "It's going to be okay, you understand, everything's going to be okay."  
  
"Tai?" Kari asked, quietly, gently, "What's wrong?"  
  
Tai took a deep breath, "Reidou. She's in the hospital."  
  
"Oh, god," Kari breathed softly.

"She was hurt pretty bad," Tai pulled Kari close to him, "Dad's with her now, and said we should get a cab out to the hospital. The doctors said she'll probably make it."  
  
"The news," Kari stammered, "Said...they said it was a rocket that got off-course...They said..."  
  
"No," Tai answered, "It was a Metal Greymon."  
  
"Here?" asked Kari, "In our world? But how?"  
  
Tai sighed, and released Kari from his grip, "I don't know."  Before he could explain what he'd seen, the phone rang.

"Moshimoshi?" Tai asked, managing to keep all the tension out of his voice. But if this was some telemarketer, he was going to tear into him like--  
  
"Taichi-chan?"

"Yamato-kun!  Oh, Matt, if you're calling about Utah, this isn't a good time…"  
  
"Tai, what's wrong?"

"My mothers in the hospital."

"No." Sora whispered.  She looked across the hotel room at Matt, and the distance between the two phones loomed large and intimidating.  
  
"Hai," Tai replied, "She was in my school when it was attacked by a Metal Greymon."  
  
"A what?!" Matt and Sora, simultaneously and incredulously replied.  
  
"It came out of no where, and attacked my school. The principal was killed, and my mother and one of the teachers were both sent to the hospital."

"The news said it was a Chinese missile.  Didn't they see it?"  
  
"I don't know.  It was like it just vanished."  
  
"Could there be another gate to the digiworld somewhere?" asked Sora.  
  
"Can you think of anything else?" Tai replied.  
  
"Not really," Sora admitted, "But wouldn't there have been more problems than just one attack on one school if there were a big rift somewhere?"  
  
"Maybe it's just starting – we need to know more about what's happening.  Can we call Izzy?"

"He's in Tokyo.  With Mimi and Joe."  Sora began rifling through her purse, looking for the number.  
  
 "The satellite!" Matt stood up.  
  
After a brief pause, Sora asked, "What satellite? What are you talking about?"  
  
"Think about it – weren't you guys listening to the news? This whole thing started when the Chineese thought they saw some sort of satellite crash in the Yellow Sea. It sunk a Korean ship. They said it was deliberate, a satellite launched by Japan or the US or one of their allies. Everything started because of that."  
  
"So?"

"So maybe it wasn't a satellite after all," Matt started.  
  
"But a gate opening to the digiworld!" Tai finished.  
  
"I see." Sora slowly whispered, "What do we do now?"  
  
"Go to the Yellow Sea," Tai said decisively, "Find that rift, and stop whatever's happening before it can kill anyone else."


	3. Hill Air Force Base, Utah

* * *

3

* * *

They left a brief note for their parents:

Something came up – we went back to Japan.

Adiosu,  
Yamato & Sora

* * *

  
"Welcome to Hill Air Force Base. I'm Sergeant Jack Bodeski, and I'll be conducting your tour today."  
  
As the young marine began to drone on, Matt took a moment to look out the bus window.  Compared to the security checkpoints that had been put in place for the Olympics, the air force was remarkably lax.  He had remembered someone at one of their parents boring events talking about it – "It would be child's play to get into a bomber's cockpit."  So Matt and Sora had hatched a plan to prove him right.  
  
Bodeski was leading them off the bus.  "The F-15 is the back bone of the United States Air Force. They're piloted by the best pilots outside of the special services.  If you'll follow me, you'll be able to get a look at one up close."  
  
Amid the oohs and aahs, they slipped away, into a briefing room.  
  
"This might be easier than I thought," Matt said absent-mindedly, "But I still wish Izzy were here. He could hack into their computer, get us a schedule of flights to Japan like that."  
  
"You mean like the one written on the white board?" asked Sora.  
  
"Exactly," Matt replied.

* * *

Matt and Sora exchanged unease glances as they huddled in the works of high-speed transport due to leave for the airbase in Kumamoto in just a few minutes.  
  
"What's happening?" Sora asked quietly.  
  
"The passengers are boarding," Matt replied, "And...Oya! One is a general!"  
  
"Really?" Sora asked.  
  
Matt nodded, then put his finger to his lips. The sound of people entering the cabin floated through the air. Moments later, voices could be made out.  
  
"All right, Lieutenant, what's the schedule like?"

"Takeoff in thirty, sir – ETA for Kumamoto is eighteen hours, thirty minutes.  And there's a briefing on the Chinese situation before we leave."  
  
"Well, don't just sit there. Get on with it."

"Aye, sir.  Charlie?"

"Good afternoon, General, Majors, Captia--"  
  
"Cut to the chase, Sergeant."  
  
"Yes, sir.  Before we begin, a reminder – this briefing contains codeword classified NSA information and top secret CIA and NASA information.  Those of you on the crew of this aircraft are asked to take a smoke break.  Only the flight crew is coming with us – cargo handling operations are suspended for this flight only."

As you know, the Chinese are claiming an American satellite has crashed into the yellow sea.  That is not what happened."

Forty-seven hours ago, our satellites and monitoring stations picked up the sudden appearance of two large objects in Earth orbit – both almost a kilometer long, less than a hundred fifty meters across.  This profile does not occur in nature. Before we could identify these objects, one of them entered Earth's atmosphere. It fell into the Yellow Sea, between China and the Korean peninsula, sinking a Korean battleship.  Space Command believes these objects to be orbital facilities built by the Chinese or Russian governments."  
  
"Does anyone really have the technology to build stations half a mile long?"  
  
"Officially, no. But unofficially, the United States already has a two hundred meter long structure in orbit. That is why we believe these stations were Chinese, and that Beijing is attempting to prevent an investigation of the crash."  
  
"How?"

"They'll hold the threat of hostilities with Japan over us.  If we attempt to send a team in, they'll accuse us of trying to recover illegal technology.  Officially, the US can't go within a hundred klicks of the Yellow Sea.  Naturally, the sub Hawthorne just disappeared from it's berth in the Kumamoto naval yards—"

"But you would never tell me about a black ops mission."

"Of course not.  As I was saying, if we publicly got anywhere near that wreck and proved it was Chinese,  They'd lose any diplomatic ties with the United Nations. One of the prime conditions of UN membership is full disclosure..."  
  
"Of all space capabilities, yes.  But we can't send a UN team in, or a third-party observer in, to prove it's Chinese tech, can we?"  
  
"No.  If word gets that the Chinese have that type of tech, the public will demand that the U.S. catch up – we'll have to reveal some of our orbitals.  But it's all one program, when we declassify the observation posts, the weapon platforms and lunar evacuation posts become public knowledge as well."

"And the government's response to the missile strike on Japan—"

"Is none of our business.  Understood?  We act on whatever orders they give us.  In the meantime, make sure we don't leave for Tokyo without a good in-flight movie."

"What type of movies do you like, General?"

"Action movies."

* * *

**Disclaimer**  
  
As I continue to rewrite this, I'm surprised by some of the plot turns I had forgotten.  I have decided I'm going to leave in all of the most unlikely and impossible devices, such as the way Matt and Sora return to Japan.  But I'm going to distract you by making the next chapter about space aliens.

So there.


	4. Kumamoto, Japan

(The Seinan Civil War is the same war you may have seen in "The Last Samurai.")  
  
In the last part, I promised space aliens.  I'm afraid I may have mis-timed the space aliens.  The space aliens will appear in the next part, do some stuff, and promptly disappear without talking to the digidestined.  This will create the impression that I'm not just distracting you, I'm dropping a careful hint about where the story is going, like when I mentioned the "USS Hawthorne" in the last chapter and then, suddenly, it becomes super important in chapter 6.  Right after the space aliens.

* * *

4

* * *

  
Tai stood quietly in the terminal of the Kumamoto airport.  The noise of landing jets was muted by the thick glass walls, and drowned out by the crowd passing by.  Tai knew very little about Kumamoto, only bits and pieces – the oldest iron axe in Japan had been found at Tensui-machi in Tamana-gun.  Kumamoto had been the major battlefield in the Seinan Civil War.  Now, the province played home to a naval yard, an airport, an excellent Greek restaurant and a major airport.  Tai was pacing across the main concourse of that airport, headed for the exit down to the tarmac below.  It was part of his plan – he had a brilliant, absolutely full proof plan to get Matt and Sora back to Japan.

He cursed the entire journalism industry as he stepped into the hot sun.  Matt's father was in Utah at the request of his boss, who didn't understand that a station manager wasn't a reporter.  Then again, he didn't understand that the reporters weren't cameramen, so at least Matt's dad was useful doing that.  It didn't change the fact that Matt and Sora were still stuck half a planet away.  (He wasn't sure how Sora had gotten to go along – if he didn't have very good evidence to the contrary, he'd of suspected they were getting it on.)  
  
Tai was forced to hide halfway to the UPS planes – some security officers drove by, and he ducked into a nearby building marked 'USAF.'  The letters were vaguely familiar to him, from some American movies he'd seen.  And, of course, from that vague adventure where all the digidestined had learned to speak perfect English, the one no one talked about much.  
  
While he was stuck hiding, he figured he might as well call Matt and Sora, tell them his plan.  He raised an eyebrow at his cell phone's display.  It said the call wouldn't have any long distance charges.  Maybe they lowered the rates for the Olympics.  
  
After a moment of ringing, he heard a brief click, "Hello?"  
  
"Sora? It's Tai. Where are you?"  
  
Suddenly he heard Matt's voice.  
  
"Standing two feet behind you."

"Oh.  Okay.  Look, I had a perfect plan to get you to Japan."

"Well, we're here now."

"It was a good plan."

"So you said.  Perfect."

"Yeah.  And I figured I could use the time you were in the crate to figure out how to get to the Yellow Sea."

"We had to be in a crate?"

"Okay, maybe it was only almost perfect."

"We had a better plan."

"Yeah, but I bet you don't have a plan to get to the Yellow Sea."

"Actually, we do.  You ever heard of the USS Hawthorne?"

"Is that something from Star Trek?"

"No, that's not something from Star Trek."

"Oh."

"We just need to get the others up here.  Did you call Izzy and Mimi and Joe?"

"Yeah.  Um, that was the other thing."  Tai paused, and looked into his friends faces.  "When I called Mimi's place, there were policemen there.  They said Mimi was gone."

"Gone?"  Matt stood up, and quickly shuffled Tai and Sora into a small maintenance closet.  With a cautious glance up and down the corridor, he locked the door behind them.  "When?"

"A few hours ago.  I called Izzy's house, and Joe's – them too.  They just disappeared, without a trace."


	5. Unstable Orbit, Earth

Hi-ya, all.  This part is actually the prolog – it's just a little bit of expository detail to fill in a couple of the blanks.  The language is real, and by real, I mean Klingon.  This is not a Star Trek crossover, and these aliens have nothing to do with Star Trek or any of it's derivatives.  They just speak Klingon, that's all.  And fly ships that look like the hospital ship and Klingon cruiser from the last episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."  So don't get all huffy.  In fact, why don't you just skip this chapter?  It was the prolog when I first published this – it's not very important, and you won't miss much.  So just skip on to the next chapter, which has the digidestined, and some scuba diving, and a naval captain with anger issues.

* * *

5

* * *

  
"I repeat, we are a medical ship on a mission of mercy. We do not--"  
  
The captain was cut off as another bolt of energy cut across the bow of the tIq, slicing into her draining shields. She looked across the bridge at her first officer, who briefly shot her a 'what are you waiting for?' look before turning back to the tactical board.  There was really no question about using the burrower, but there was always a nagging bit of doubt.  What if this was the one time in a hundred it went wrong?  Sure, it could dump that battleship behind them in the middle of some ancient sun – and good riddance – or somewhere equally dangerous.  But what if the enemy ended up crashing into some innocent planet?  
  
There's always plenty of time for regrets after it's all over.  "Prepare the burrower," she said aloud.  
  
"Captian?" asked the first, "Are you sure?"  
  
"Duj tlvoqtaH," she replied.  After the look that little worm had just given her… She made a mental note to have him beaten later. "Launch it and go to an emergency deceleration. Activate as soon as that cruiser gets within ten thousand kilometers of the epicenter."  
  
"jlyaj," the first replied, and began making the calculations on his board. Moments later, "Ready."  
  
"Do it."  
  
The tIq slowed suddenly, and the angular green battleship shot past her.  On an interstellar scale, it was an extremely fast maneuver, but that only meant it took three minutes instead of thirty.  Four hundred and thirty seconds after the captain had issued the launch order, as the cruiser began to turn back towards the tIq's rounded hull and long nacells, a bright white flash shook the fabric of space and time. It began to become unweaved, as a bright rip opened up in space, long plasma tendrils sparking and flashing around it like the corona of a star.  The epicenter of the rift was directly between the enemy cruiser and the tIq, and moving toward the cruiser at a rate of 450 kilometers per second.  The rip quickly swallowed up the battleship, pulling her through time and space. The bridge crew aboard the tIq breathed a sigh of relief – for the moment.

"Captain.  Something's wrong."

She quickly strode to her chair, pulling up a nav plot – there was something wrong, indeed.  The rift wasn't closing up on itself.  The burrower technology was designed to create an unstable rift that collapsed in upon itself.  Specifically, they were designed to collapse after an object had made the journey through.  That wasn't happening, which was bad.  First, there was the possibility that the suQ battleship could come back through the rift.  Worse, the rift destabilized the gravitational fields in the nearest areas of space.  The destabilization was so minute, it would only seriously affect extreme gravity fields that had to be kept in a precise balance to be stable.  Fields like that of the tIq's propulsion system.

"Keep sensors locked on that rift – I want to know the second it looks like anything might be coming through.  Get engineering, and find out what shape our impeller drives are in."

"Captain," the sensor officer's voice was shaky.  "That rift is moving toward us.  Fast."  
  
"ghobe'" the captian slowly whispered to herself. And then it was upon them.

The ride to the event horizon was much to slow, and rough.  Gravity waves washed over the tIq, breaking her shields and buckling her hull along the port nacelle.  The nacelle burst, spewing plasma and containment field generators across the tIq's wake in a blue-green cloud as she crested the edge of the rift and  
  
the universe collapsed around them, exploding into possibility…  
  
And they were through.  
  
The tIq shot through the rift, it's hull, incredibly, intact, and almost undamaged. But it was clear to anyone who was looking that the tIq was dying. It's right nacelle was dragging a hole in space, pulling part of the rift away in a white streamer of unreality that trailed the ship as she coasted toward the SuQ battleship, and the planet it was orbiting.  
  
Behind her, most of the rift folded into itself and out of existence. But a small portion of it remained, being dragged along by the tIq. The small, sinuating line of unreality the ship pulled was slowly abiding by the laws of our universe, the tear in space slowly closed until it was no more than a line of light stretched in five or so dimensions across the tIq's port nacelle.

With her nacelle, the ship had lost all her engine capability.  Her almost-a-kilometer-long hull was unable to settle into a stable orbit like the SuQ battleship, and she began her fall into the sea of a small, blue-green planet.


	6. USS Hawthorne, Yellow Sea

Back to the digidestined.

Eventually.

* * *

6

* * *

  
Chief Petty Officer David Smith walked quickly down the small corridors of the submarine USS Hawthorne, quietly muttering his mantra: "they won't shoot the messenger."

Granted, all his hopes of a quiet cruise had vanished with the Chinese missile strike.  The entire Pacific fleet had gone to high alert within hours of the attack.  Most of the time, this means something very specific for navy officers.  Quadruple check everything, and sit back, hoping the diplomats can fix things without you having to do anything.  After all, only a tiny fraction of the military ever actually works on black ops, and Smith hadn't planned on being part of it; just another Sonar Officer, hoping things don't go to wrong.

Then the Hawthorne had left port at the port near Yatsushiro five hours ago, bound for the Yellow Sea.

So here there were, cruising in within spitting distance of four Chinese naval ships with active underwater operations – they appeared to be attempting to reach the satellite.  So, the chief sonar officer was on the bridge, right?  Making sure this particular black op stayed black, right?

Oh, no.  He was down there, fixing Captain Johnson's mistakes.  A captain is master after God on a naval ship, and when he tells you to take the fall for him, you do it.  Even when it's not just a mistake, but two –

One: Captain Johnson had allowed the general to come on this voyage, giving in to his ridiculous demand to 'see it for myself.' Two: Captain Johnson had further cowed to the generals authorities and allowed him to bring civilians on this cruise. 

Two major mistakes, and now David Smith had to take the fall in front of the general.  It just wasn't fair.

He reached the quarters. He took a deep breath, and, sealing his fate, knocked.

"Come," he heard the voice of the General.

He slowly entered the tiny room. Stiffly, he saluted, and waited.

"Well?" asked the General, impatiently, "What is it?"

It took David a moment to find his voice, but when he did, it all came pouring out: "Sir, Captain Johnson asked me to come down here and voice his displeasure with your insistence on allowing your grandchildren to accompany you on this voyage.  It breaches every rule of naval conduct to allow civilians on a black ops mission merely because of their relationship to a high-ranking officer, and it's my duty to point that out.

He took a breath, waiting for the career-ending anger of a general scorned.  Instead, the man looked at him blankly, and, with two simple words, drove home the lesson that things can always get worse.

"What grandchildren?"

* * *

Lieutenant John Mammet stalked down the corridor, heading away from the bridge and that jackass. He still couldn't believe the Captain was so weak-willed he had actually let those children on board.  How such a man became the captain of a naval submarine was a source of endless puzzlement for Mammet, who knew of hamsters that could do the job better.

Senile hamsters.

He ducked around a crewman striding forward, but Mammet was to experienced a sea dog for even the slightest twinge of claustrophobia in the submarines tiny corridor.  When the crewman had passed, David Smith was standing in the corridor, with the general in tow.  David looked right at Mammet.

"There are no grandkids, sir."

John waited for precisely one half of a second before he moved; then he was running full out toward the small room they had given those lying little bastards, David and the general right behind. He bowled over two other crewmen before he reached the room.  He pulled open the door. Empty.

 "Where would they have gone?" asked the general

Mammet responded instantly:  "The SCUBA room.  They're after that satellite."

* * *

  
"Do you seriously think we're not going to get caught, Matt?" Tai asked rhetorically.

"Probably," Matt admitted. "But we've made it on this submarine for three hours, plus the drive from Kumamoto to the port. We were all SCUBA certified in a vague adventure we don't talk about much.  It's our best chance."

Tai sighed, still not believing it for a second. He checked his dive computer again. It still said ten minutes at this depth before he had to surface. That was far more than was safe for a human.  Putting the suicidal danger out of his mind, Tai closed his eyes. He was going to be lucky to get out of this alive.

Then again, he had seen that Metal Greymon. It had destroyed his school and put his mother in the hospital.  To say nothing of two secret satellites, and the Chinese and Japanese desperately close to war.  Or of Mimi and the rest vanishing.  Something big was going on, and it had all started with whatever was lying on the sea bed less than a kilometer away. He had to find out what was happening.

"Is everyone ready?" Sora asked anxiously.

Tai put on his goggles and stuck his mouthpiece on. The others did the same. Giving each other a look, Matt turned to a small panel and pushed a couple of buttons.

Below them, a circular hatch suspended half a meter above the deck opened, a portal to the ocean a meter wide opening up. Sora gave them a light nod and stepped into the water, vanishing into the small tube that lead out into the depths. Matt gave him a look and stepped up and over.

Tai took a breath and stepped up to the edge of the hatchway. Then, with a splash, he fell in, a half second before a dozen angry navy men charged through the door.


	7. Tokyo, Japan

* * *

7

* * *

Hikari stifled a yawn as she stretched out along the back seat of the cab.  She could never sleep on trains, and it had been a long ride from Okuchi.  Her emotions were too conflicted to get much real rest, anyway.  On the one hand, she was angry at Tai for leaving without telling anyone where he was going.  On the other, she was worried, and wanted to know he was okay.  So she had come to Tokyo, to Matt and Takeru's home.  She would never admit it, but she missed T.K. more than any of her other friends from the digiworld.  Mostly, though, Kari was there because if anyone knew where Tai was, it would be Matt.

Then T.K. answered the door, he didn't say anything for a moment, and there was an evaluating silence.  Kari saw how T.K. had come into his own, and was no longer Matt's little brother.  It was something no one else would have seen, a very small change in his eyes, which flashed with a new light.  It was a hungry glimmer, possessive – and then it was gone, so quickly she wondered if she had seen it at all.

"Tai left," Kari stated simply.

"Matt too, and Sora.  They must be together."  T.K. paused, then finally, "Do you want to come in?"

In the front room, Kari sat in a padded armchair.  T.K. stood by the window, and looked out.  He didn't want to look into Kari's eyes.  She had changed, too.  She had always been able to see what the others couldn't, sometimes.  Now, it was like she was looking into your soul every single second.  He did not want to trust her, he wanted to tell someone else.  But she was the only one left, and it was important.

"You know Izzy is gone?" he asked.

"Tai told me," She replied.  "He was afraid, but I know Izzy isn't dead."

"Not exactly," T.K. replied.

"And I didn't exactly jump off that cliff," Kari said, rolling her eyes at T.K.

T.K. smiled, and his anxiety at being around Kari start to fade.  "I know Tai's password, for his email.  I don't ever use it."

"You respect his privacy."

"His email has things I don't want to see."

"Ah."  Kari paused.  "But when he was gone, you checked it."

T.K. nodded, and handed her a printout.

TO: "Tai" (banchou@okuchi.com)

FROM: "Izzy" (otaku@tokyo.com)

SUBJECT:  musen`inshoku

Taichi-chan,

I want you to have this, for all the good it might do.  Joe and Mimi have vanished – or, more accurately, they seem to have been converted into digital data.  It was similar to our final battle in the digiworld.  I believe that I will soon disappear as well, though I do not know where to or why.

I have reason to believe that the map attached may be an alternate way for you to find us.  Actually, it's more of a hunch, but Joe and Mimi were scanned the instant I opened this file.  Good luck.

Gyoukou, and seikou

--Izumi Koushiro

T.K. and Kari looked at each other, then back at the computer.  They opened the file, which turned out to be a floor plan.  A series of corridors connected a few small rooms.  In the back, a series of rooms resembling an altar were highlighted in red.  The map was labeled "Taisekiji Complex."

T.K. played that name around the inside of his head, "Isn't Taisekiji a temple in Shizuoki?"

"Yeah, I think it is," replied Kari.  "I'll call a cab."


	8. Crash Site, Yellow Sea

* * *

8

* * *

  
A little over seven hundred kilometers from Beijing, three hundred and fifteen feet below the surface of the Yellow Sea, lie the remains of the Korean cruiser Shimoni.

A hypothetical diver, approaching the wreck from the north, would see the Shimoni's aft hull, visible above a ridge.   As the diver slid over the ridge, and was dwarfed by the massive propellers, he would see that the ship had been pinned at an angle – a large, spherical object had crushed the fore quarter of the hull and forced the cruiser up at an angle.   Looking from the shattered, broken ship to the sphere, one would see that it was constructed of a silver-grey metal, obviously once meticulously polished and cared for. But the proud hull was now pitted, and had buckled against the Korean ship. Extending behind the sphere, a sharp-eyed diver might have made out further shapes – from his angle, looking like the great trident of Poseidon.

If this hypothetical diver were not sufficiently anxious at the ease with which such a powerful sea vessel as the Shimoni had been crushed, and not sufficiently fearful at the prospect of an ancient sea god's wrath, then the fish might, hypothetically, put the diver over the edge.  For as the diver began to come parallel to the Shimoni's hull, they would begin to see fish.  Dead fish, floating quietly, upside down, and drifting slowly toward the distant light of the surface.  First only a few, then, more, and finally many, many fish – all dead.  But if this diver were not prone to panic, they would simply – sensibly – have thanked their hypothetical God that they couldn't smell dead fish underwater.

Furthermore, if this hypothetical diver had continued to swim to the very bottom of the sphere, to the buckling in the hull, just above the ocean's floor, they would, with some judicious gyration, have been able to gain access to a flooded, dark corridor. Should this diver then swim forward to the third intersection on the left, and then down the passage aft, they would come upon a set of doors that had been forced open. If they had proceeded through these doors, they would have been in a large shaft bisecting this part of the sphere. Had they then floated up several floors, they would have reached the entered the air still trapped within the sphere. The water's surface was near a doorway that had also been forced open. If this diver had, cared to make his or her way as quickly as possible five meters up the corridor, to the left, where the water was no longer more than six inches deep, they would have seen, if they had had arrived at just the right time, three figures removing standard U.S. Navy SCUBA gear, and wetsuits, inscribed not only with the identification of the U.S. Navy, but also of the submarine U.S.S. Hawthorne. 

* * *

They wandered the dark vessel, prying open doors and discussing politics – Sora was convinced that someone, somewhere, would realize everything had been a mistake and calm things down.  Matt didn't say out loud that things would end in an apocalyptic nuclear winter, but had a deeply buried certainty of the impending end of days that, back at the Olympics, had led two separate people to assume he was a native Utahn.  Tai asked if maybe they should be more concerned with being eaten by alien spiders than with politics, and Matt could find no way to argue with that.  He was going to give it a shot anyway when they found the alien.

She was in a room that was obviously the command center.  It physically looked nothing like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, but tasted like a duplicate, and there was even a captain's chair.  Tai didn't hesitate before approaching it; Matt and Sora were only a step behind, and all of them stopped when they saw the captain.

She had clearly been remarkable – and also remarkably human. Her face was long, her eyes large and expressive. Her long, red hair had been tied into a bun, but was now loose and hanging about her forehead.  Silken strands stuck slightly to an aqua colored patch of blood.  Her eyes were also the color of the sea, but glassy and blind.

"Colath..." she weakly whispered, "Is the crew all right?"

Sora leaned in, "We're fine, sir."

The captain smiled, but said, "Don't lie to me, See'lah.  This ship wasn't built to land."

Tai was mouthing the word 'stop,' thinking that no good deed would go unpunished.  But Matt was blindly compassionate, and told her that the some of her people were badly hurt, but that the natives of the planet had doctors, and had already begun the rescue.

"We need to send someone on to the Admiralty, to let them know what happened," the captain told them.

"We're already on it. We should get word back within the hour," Matt assured her.

"No, no, no – we'll send someone in person." She reached forward for a console in the arm rest, read from a strange display.  "There's enough power to send three of us – but it will drain the batteries completely.  You will have to take a copy of my logs with you."

"Umm, we really--" Tai started, but she cut him off.

"Don't try and get me off the ship.  There's still a SuQ battleship in orbit.  We can't let them get any technology, so tell the Admiralty that I'm activating the self-destruct charges.  I hope the natives can defend against the SuQ, but we can't take any chances."

The captain was moving her fingers across the console, quickly now.  Her eyes were radiant, taking in everything around them, but she still saw her first officer where Matt stood.  Her crew protested, but she knew this was her time, and their refusal to leave her only strengthened her resolve.  She had no time for a long speech, so she only wished them luck, and then they were gone.

She smiled as she activated the explosives – her crew would help the natives hold off the SuQ, and the Admiralty would send a dozen ships to make a rescue, to help the natives.  As the counter approached zero, she was at peace.


	9. Somewhere, Part 1

I have forgotten the year in which season one took place.  For purposes of this story, Tai, Matt & Sora are 17; Izzy & Mimi, 16; T.K. & Kari, 14.  Gennai, as usual, appears quite old.

* * *

9

* * *

  
Tai lay comfortably between soft sheets that were not his own, curled up against the pillow, trying not to panic.  He had stirred, at first, with that slow and comfortable stretching that happens after you've had a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed.  But then he had realized it was not his own bed that he had slept in.  With half-awake logic, he had known it was the first day of the year 2001, and he was waking up in someone else's bed.  This time, he swore, he wouldn't open his eyes, and never wake up next to the person he had woken up next to, and wouldn't have to pressure his father to move to Okuchi –

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to a rather stupid evening!"

"What?" Tai murmured quietly, covering his ears against the scream.

"Tai?" again someone screamed, but this time it was a familiar voice.

"Izzy," Tai rolled up into a sitting position, eyes still closed, ears still covered.  "You don't need to scream."

"I'm not," Izzy shouted. Tai rocked back and forth – the bed was gone, and he was sitting on a non-descript floor.  The comfortable feeling of being asleep had been replaced with an awful headache.  (Matt and Sora felt the same way, though only Matt recognized the feeling as similar to being hung-over.)  
  
"Tai?" Izzy asked, not so loudly this time, "Are you okay?"  
  
"Not…really," Tai replied.  He clenched his teeth and pushed himself up. For a second he didn't think he'd be able to stand, but the dizziness was starting to go away. He had forgotten why he had been so terrified of opening his eyes, though the feeling itself hadn't entirely fled.  He couldn't focus on his personal problems now, not when he didn't know what happened.  "Who else is here?"

Everyone," Izzy replied, "T.K. and Kari were here when myself and Mimi got here.  You, Matt and Sora arrived an hour or so ago, but we didn't want to wake you.  It seemed rather pointless.  There's nowhere to go."  
  


Tai finally opened his eyes, and realized that Izzy was right.  He was in a grey void that seemed to stretch out in all directions, with nothing discernable in it besides the rest of the digidestined in various states of unease: his little sister was pacing impatiently, and Matt was curled into a ball muttering something about 'saki.'

"Oh."  Tai stared around for a few more minutes.  "It's been like this the whole time?"  When Izzy responded with only a blank look, Tai asked how long he'd been there.

"Not long.  My watch isn't functioning right, but it can't have been more than a few hours."  
  


Tai felt the headache starting to come back.  "You disappeared almost a week ago."  
  
Izzy nodded and ran his fingers through his dark red hair in concentration. "There must be some sort of time dilation in effect here, because from my point of view, your school was hit by that missile less than two days ago."  
  


"Okay," Tai sighed, "We're all here now and we'll just have to deal with it.  Sora, Matt and I were … beamed here, I guess you'd say.  From that ship in the Yellow Sea."  
  


"The Korean one?"

"No, no, the spaceship."

"I thought it was a satellite," Izzy's eyes widened.  "You mean it was a spaceship…"  
  
Tai nodded, "With aliens and everything."  
  
Izzy blinked.  Then grinned.  "I knew it!  I KNEW IT!"  
  
"Oh, no," Tai moaned, "I forgot about you and the aliens."  Tai curled back up into a ball and rolled over, intending to stay there for at least a week.  Even when Izzy stopped – eventually – Tai stayed on the ground.  He didn't have his goggles.

Tai stayed on the ground, curled up.  Matt had a similar ground-bound strategy, but his involved more of a stretched-out-on-his-back variation.  Sora took over the impatient pacing detail so Kari could take T.K. aside and talk to him in quiet, urgent whispers about the statute they'd found in the temple.  Izzy looked busy on his laptop, but he was playing solitaire.

Mimi had wandered off on her own, and she spotted the old man.  
  
"Gennai!" she exclaimed happily, and her shout brought the others racing to meet them.  
  
"Gashi, children," Gennai said, sagely, after they had all assembled.  
  
"Konnichi wa, Gennai-sama," Tai stepped in front of the others, "Can you tell us how we got here?"  
  
"Takeru and Hikari know how they got here, and I imagine they will tell you what I do not have time to."  He flashed the younger ones a look of indulgent disapproval.  "I will tell you this: When the captain of that ship attempted to transport you, Matt and Sora to her home world, she was not aware of your true nature.  You do not have the mental discipline and training her crew would have had, and were unable to make the trip. Because you were not trained or prepared, you ended up here."  
  
"Where is here?" Matt asked bluntly.

"In a moment.  I was not able to prevent you from coming here.  However, I was able to bring Izzy and Mimi here as well – you are more likely to find your way home as a team.  T.K. and Kari found their way here as well, though I did not intend that."

By now, the digidestined had sat in a semi-circle around Gennai, listening intently.  
  
"When you visited my house in the Digiworld, I told you that I have a form in many worlds." Gennai paused. "This world is another world that runs parallel to your own. However, this one is new, and only beginning to form."  
  
"Gennai-sama," Izzy began to raise his hand, then reminded himself this was not a classroom. "You told us that the digital world was created by the internet, and all the other computer networks on earth. I can't believe humans have created anything else with that much potential in their entire history. But if that is true, what created this world?"  
  
"You are right, Koushiro-san. There is no greater accomplishment in human history than the internet, and certainly nothing else with the power to create a world – except for the worlds you imagine, and those of their own rules.

"But you must understand that parallel worlds are created with great frequency by the natural flow of the multiverse. It is one of the most fundamental principles of creation."  
  
"So this world," Tai said, "is new, and not formed."  
  
"Correct, Taichi-san," Gennai nodded to him, "The laws that will govern this world are not yet set. The form it will take is still unknown."  
  
"Gennai-sama," Izzy asked, "Are you saying that the laws of physics may not apply here, as they do on our world? That those laws are a creation of our universe?"  
  
Gennai smiled a very small smile, "Of course, Koushiro-san. It would have been many eons before the laws of this world were formed, had it been allowed to develop naturally."  
  
Matt leaned forward, "Would have been?"  
  
"Yamato-san … you must understand that your presence here will change the formation of this world.  You will cause things to happen quickly, and be unstable."  
  
"How, Gennai-sama?" asked Izzy.  
  
"Your thoughts, Koushiro-san," Gennai replied, "will form this world. Your consciousness will cause this world to take shape. It will be created from your minds."  
  
"Gennai-sama," Tai began, "This is all fascinating, but what about our world? It is in trouble, and I don't think we want to stay here. Can you take us back to our world?"  
  
"No, Taichi-san," Gennai shook his head, "I had the power to bring some of you here, but this world has already begun to take shape. I no longer have the power to bring you back. Indeed, soon I will no longer be able to communicate with you.  
  
"But rest assured, children, that there is a way back to your world from this one. However, since I do not yet know what form this world will take, I cannot help you find it. You must do that on your own."  
  
Gennai was beginning to lose his form, to disappear.  
  
"Kentou, children, and remember, do not fall asleep!"  
  
"What?" asked Izzy, "Why, Gennai? What happens when we sleep?"  
  
"The world will end," Gennai replied.  
  
"Then will we return to our own world?" asked Matt, hoping for an easy out.  
  
"No," Gennai said, just before he vanished entirely, "Then you die."


	10. Somewhere, Part 2

I'm not sure I spelled 'Striesand' right.  But if you fully get that one, you probably have bigger issues than spelling.

* * *

10

* * *

  
Soon after Gennai left, there was a sunrise that burned away the fog; and it was good.  The distant golden sun revealed a bay, shining blue, that swept into a distant ocean and was bordered by green valleys and hills.  There was no sign of human life, no sound but gentle wind and bird-song.  The  last white contrails of fog retreated to the distant corners, a small uneasy underscore; the warning of Gennai's final words that hovered beneath the wonder they all shared at the sight of a world literally new-made.

"It reminds me of the unpopulated areas of Hokkaido, or of the Alaskan frontier," Izzy observed; he had never been to Hokkaido or Alaska.

It was warm, but with a comfortable breeze.  For the day, they forgot they were the digidestined, and explored aimlessly.  Tai and Matt climbed a rock ledge in the afternoon; admired the view for a moment; then came down.  Mimi sat in the shade and looked pretty, watching Sora beat T.K. and Kari in a tree-climbing contest.  Even Izzy put his laptop away.  
  
By the end of the day they had walked several miles and were approaching a large pass into a new valley, inland from the sea.  They made what camp they could in a grove of trees bordered on two sides by a steep cliff and on another by an ancient rock slide.  Tai thought it would be a well-protected location.

Sora was able to start a fire, to small cheers.  A little fog coated the ground as they worried about ways to keep each other awake.  They had found an apple tree earlier, and Sora – who would have made a model boy scout – showed them how to roast the apples over the fire.  
  
Matt wandered a little way from the camp and saw the sunset through the treebranches.  With no pollution to enhance the color, it was rather uninspiring; he wished he had his guituar with him.

He wished they had anything useful, really.  As the last glow from the sun faded, a chill went through him.  He had only the shirt and jeans he had been wearing under his wetsuit.  Sora had managed to create pair of makeshift backpacks from the oxygen tanks and wetsuit material.  So they had the backpacks and Izzy's laptop; no other modern technology, no change of clothes—

The sun was gone, and the trees cast leering shadows from two pale moons; ethereal goddesses casting their first look at the world.  The world was still, and the moons cast especially ominous shadows over the caves in the cliff face.  
  
Caves that weren't there before the sun set.  
  
Matt stood up, taking a step forward, toward the cave; certainly nothing from his own mind could harm him.  Nothing from his own mind could wish him ill.  But with every step he took towards those caves, he became increasingly certain that there was something in them that wanted to hurt him, and badly.  He had moved only a few steps before the malevolent force took a physical shape, and the wings of a thousand bats began to beat at the night air.  
  
He wanted to turn and make a break for the trees, but it was of course far too late.  There was a single black form flowing out of the caves, the night creatures moving as one, moving right toward Matt.  The moonlight did not shine on them, and it was a pillar of blackness, not a flock of living creatures, that was charging him. Matt threw himself backwards, landing flat on his back as he felt the skittering of dozens of wings beating just centimeters from his face, brushing against his skin.

For a moment they were again bats, natural creatures with no supernatural malevlolence; they scattered to the wind, looking for food.  Matt pulled himself up, breaking for the campsite; the darkness that had driven the bats – whatever it was – was regrouping.

  
"Matt?" Tai stepped out from the trees, and Matt felt the darkness retreat.  For the moment.

* * *

The digidestined were huddled around the campfire, and Izzy was pontificating:

"If this world is somehow shaped by our personalities, it could be Matt encountered a physical representation of someone's fear, or a personal demon, as the Americans would call it.  At the risk of pop-psychology, night is the time when people believe their fears will come to life, when bad things happen.  Or, more accurately, when our unresolved psychological issues will be given a physical form."  
  
Everyone took a couple of steps away from Matt.  
  
"Izzy," Tai asked, "Is there any way we can defend against this sort of thing?"  
  
"I think," Izzy replied, emphasizing 'think,' "That they only attack when we're alone, and thus, most vulnerable. That would explain why the bats scattered when Tai arrived."  
  
"Okay," Tai nodded, "From now on, we're on the buddy system. No one does anything alone. Hopefully, that will keep us safe."  
  
A sudden gust of wind blew the fire out, as if to mock his words.

* * *

  
Sora's scouting know-how had deserted her; they were still trying to get the fire going again several hours later. It was very late, and the moon was almost setting. The halo over the western mountains suggested that dawn was coming.  
  
"We need to find a way out of this world," Mimi was complaining, "I've never gone this long without sleep before. I don't know if I can stay up much longer."  
  
"What you need," Izzy commented, "Is a good surge of adrenaline.  I'm sure a giant monster would properly stimulate your adrenal gland."

"That's not funny," Sora channeled Striesand.  
  
"What?  The odds of something like that are one in—"

An ear-shattering roar of pain, anger, and malice swept over the campsite, echoing across the cliffs that protected them and also boxed them in.  
  
"...one," Izzy finished, slowly and deliberately closing his laptop and putting it in it's carrycase.  The trees parted unwillingly, most bending but several breaking and falling forward toward the camp. The digidestined quickly darted out of the way, scattering in front of the monstrosity moving toward them. It was ten meters high if it was a foot, and seemed to be nothing but claws and mandibles.  
  
"Let's go!" Sora shouted, and most of the digidestined began a mad dash into the woods to the south.  
  
"Wait!" Tai shouted after them, "We should stay and face this! You don't run from your fears!"  
  
"You do when they look like Godzilla on PCP!" Matt reminded him.  Sora had found a cave entrance in the cliff-face, and she and Matt shuffled the others inside.  Tai held his ground, and the beast reared up in front of him.

"Tai!" Sora pleaded, "Come on!"

Matt ran back for him, muttering to himself:  "You and your fucking after-school-special face-your-fears Captain-Planet-school-of-leadership bull—"  He grabbed Tai and yanked him hard, just as a great clawed appendage fell, striking a crater where Tai had been standing.  The creature roared again, mighty and terrible, and Tai looked briefly at Matt.

"It's really real."  Matt nodded, and pulled again at Tai to get him running.  They struck out for the cave, but by then it was of course far too late.  The monstrosity leapt forward at them, a clawed missile, and Tai and Matt pulled each other to the ground to huddled against one another and wait for it to land…  
  
Time stretched out, as it always does in the seconds before you die.  But eventually it became clear that the seconds that seemed to be passing were actually seconds passing and that the monster had not hit them.  Tai looked up. Pulling himself to his knees and looking around, there was no sign of the monster, only digidestined walking toward them from the cave.  
  
"Did we...beat it?" he asked hopefully.  
  
"No," Izzy replied as Tai helped Matt to his feet.  "The sun just came up."


End file.
